Radio interface problems related to transfer of network traffic in the Radio Access Network (RAN) have been dealt with quite a lot in wireless communications systems. Traditionally, a bottleneck for transfer of network traffic has been present in the radio interface at a radio base station of the RAN since it has been the most expensive network resource compared to other network resources such as the transport network of the RAN.
But, as the radio interface has evolved, for instance in terms of throughput of traffic, quality of traffic, round trip time of traffic etc., the transport network has instead become the new bottleneck for transfer of network traffic in the RAN.
With the introduction of higher peak rates and smaller radio base stations such as radio base stations covering increasingly smaller cells typically including so-called “pico” and “femto” cells, the cost of the transport network has now increased beyond the cost of the radio interface, at least in some applications, for instance due to the increased number of radio base stations required for the increased number of cells. A higher number of small cells are required to cover the same area as fewer larger cells: hence the number of radio base stations increases.
The current solutions do not solve the problem with the transport network sometimes being the bottleneck for the transfer of network traffic.